In the sermon 'Jesus Dies,' Peter Allison explores the events surrounding the death of Jesus as described in Luke 23. The sermon highlights the symbolic darkness that covered the earth, representing God's judgment, and the tearing of the temple veil, which signifies the end of the need for the temple sacrifices and the opening of direct access to God through Jesus. Allison emphasizes that Jesus' death was voluntary, a profound act of love and humility, as He willingly gave up His spirit. The sermon explains that death is a result of sin and that Jesus' death, while unjust in a human sense, was a necessary atonement for humanity's sins. Witnesses to the crucifixion, including a centurion who acknowledged Jesus' righteousness, are discussed as testaments to His innocence and the fulfillment of His mission. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to offer themselves as living sacrifices in response to Christ's ultimate sacrifice.

Please turn to Luke chapter 23. We've been working our way through this account of Jesus' suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, of his trial, of his crucifixion. And we now come to verse 44, pick up this account. Luke 23. Now it was the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

And then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous man. And the whole crowd who came together to that site, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.

But all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things." May God revive us according to His loving kindness so that we may keep the testimony of His mouth. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask that you would open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things out of your word. We ask that you would sanctify us by this word. And that as we continue to worship, may you speak to us by this word.

And equip us to serve you more faithfully and to love you more consistently and more fervently. I ask that you would sanctify my lips and preserve me from error. In Jesus' name, amen. You probably have seen those little knickknacks. Sometimes they're children's toys, sometimes they're knickknacks, you know, like the little egg that when you open that egg, there's another egg inside it, just like it, just a little bit smaller.

You can open that egg and there's another one in there. Just like it. Just a little bit smaller Well this narrative of Luke Giving us the history of Christ the rest of His kangaroo trial and unjust execution is an account of the very Gospel itself. Paul summarized to the Corinthians the gospel that He preached by saying, moreover, brethren, I declare this gospel that I preach to you that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He rose again. Well, that's the narrative that we are recording here, that we are looking at here.

But just like those eggs within eggs or boxes within boxes, there is inside this narrative giving us the Gospel, another accounting of that same Gospel in Jesus' words that Luke records. And we looked at that last week, how he proclaimed the wrath of God. As those people were weeping, as those women were weeping for him, He said, daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves because there is a wrath coming upon you. See, that's the first step of the Gospel.

It's the declaration of the wrath of God. And then he prays for the salvation of the people mocking him and the soldiers. Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do. He brings the Word to them. He prays for them.

And That prayer is immediately answered in the case of one of the criminals who had been mocking him, now rebukes the other criminal who is mocking Jesus and asked Jesus to be to remember him to remember him and Jesus says yes today this very day today you will be with me in paradise and then at his death Jesus commits his spirit to the Father. And so even in these words of Jesus within this gospel account. We have the gospel again summarized. Paul summarized his entire letter to Romans which is concerned with the presentation of the gospel as that the righteousness of God has been revealed from heaven because the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. So Jesus, as He is about to die, commits His Spirit to the Father.

But just before He dies, there are some things that happen that are significant and worthy of us looking at. It was the sixth hour. That would be about noon, when the sun is at its peak zenith. But there was darkness over all the earth for the next three hours until the ninth hour, about three o'clock. So Jesus had, before this time, before that darkness presumably prayed for the forgiveness of those who treated him, crucified him as well as his statement of grace to the thief that today He would be with him in paradise.

And then there is darkness. Darkness. Why the darkness? Well, darkness is a sign of God's judgment. God sent darkness on the land of Egypt in the days of Moses, but light to His people.

Darkness is a sign in the Scripture of judgment. It's one of the signs. It's one of the things it signs. Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness. It's a sign of judgment, of sorrow, of pain, of ignorance.

Job speaks often of darkness. Job, the one who endured such great suffering in body and torment by his comforters. This Job speaks of darkness more than any other writer in the Bible, more than any other book, almost twice as much as any other book. Even the Psalms. The Psalms speak of it with respect to the wicked.

They do not know, they do not understand, they walk about in darkness. The Psalms speak of it with respect to affliction. You have laid me in the lowest pit in darkness, in the depths. The enemy has persecuted my soul, he has crushed my life, Psalm 143, to the ground, he has made me dwell in darkness. It's used to refer to the bondage of sin.

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, Psalm 107 speaks. It's used to speak of walking in sin. Those who leave the path of righteousness, Proverbs 2 says, to walk in darkness, in the ways of darkness. It's the way of fools. Ecclesiastes says the wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.

All his days he eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and sickness and anger. All his days he walks in darkness. But also, it's a sign. The thunder of the law and the judgment of God are described as darkness. It's a sign of God's thunderous law.

In Psalm 97, we read that clouds and darkness surround the Father, surround God. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. When that law was given, what did the people see and hear? Well, there was a mountain that quaked. The earth quaked.

And The mountain was in darkness and blackness. The words, Deuteronomy 5 tells us that these words the Lord spoke to your assembly in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice. So it was, Moses said, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness and the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me and you said, surely The Lord has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet He still lives." That thunder of the darkness, the thunder and the darkness was to show the terror of the judgment of God on sin. The terror and the judgment of God on those who break and transgress that law that He was given.

Terror and judgment on the conscience. The terror that the law brings on the conscience of sinners. But our salvation is pictured as the deliverance from darkness. The same Psalms that speak of God's judgment as darkness speak of our salvation as He brings us out of darkness and the shadow of death and breaks our chains in pieces. Unto the upright, Psalm 112 says, there arises light in the darkness.

He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous. And so the Israelites rightly recognized that when they heard the voice of God out of this quaking mountain and thick darkness and that they were living, that they had been saved and redeemed by the grace of God. And so why then this darkness that is surrounding the entire earth as Christ is bearing the wrath of God? Well, that darkness was an awe-inspiring terror to all the people who crucified Christ, demonstrating the wrath of God on sin. It was actually a mercy to the wicked so that they might tremble at the judgment and wrath of God, that He didn't even spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

The wrath of God was not appeased in any other way than by the expiation through blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. So that darkness was a mercy. There is grace in shame, and there is grace in these in these manifestations of God's wrath To turn us away To cause us to fear God. The other sign that happened was that at the ninth hour when Mark, or when John records that Jesus said it is finished, Mark and Matthew record also that Jesus proclaims with a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But it was at this moment, and in Mark and Matthew, it's very clear that these things followed the death of Christ.

Luke doesn't give us the order here. If you look at Luke, it says, when Jesus cried out with a loud voice, He said, into your hands I commend my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. It doesn't, there's not a chronological connection there. Luke records the darkness and this veil being torn prior to recording Jesus' death, But Mark and Luke are very clear in the order.

They both use the word then in showing us that Jesus died and then these things happened. From Matthew Jesus cried with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And then the veil was torn and the earth quaked and the rocks were split. So these things happened immediately after Christ died. The veil of the temple was torn in two.

Luke records it. The sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two. Now what is the significance of that? Well, that is signifying that that temple was no longer needed. What do you do when you're done with a piece of paper?

Today, maybe we don't use paper. We have iPads and smartphones and things that we we write on if we need to record voice memos. But back in the day before all those things You would write your list on a piece of paper and what do you do when you're done with the piece of paper? You don't need it anymore, right you Tear it in two and you throw it away Jesus death Meant that that temple was no longer needed anymore and God tore the veil in two from top to bottom That was a very very heavy thick veil This was not a this was not a worn-out fabric that tore by by pulling on a little too hard This is a very thick veil Very thick veil. That God tore into, very clearly saying this temple and all that it represented is no longer needed.

Now this was a temple that God had commanded Israel to build. Where God is saying it's now, its purpose is complete. See, that whole temple system and everything that happened in it Pointed forward to Christ this temple was where blood sacrifices of of animals were offered continually Every day morning and evening these sacrifices were offered the The showbread was placed upon the table. The incense went up from the altar of incense. All of this pointing to Christ and Christ's sacrifice.

Hebrews 9 explains in summary form the significance of this temple. It says there was a tabernacle. And it lists all the things, all the furniture that was in the tabernacle. But then it says in verse 11, that Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, and not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once and for all having obtained eternal redemption. Those sacrifices were signs to point toward Christ, to Christ's sacrifice into His blood.

But all those sacrifices that were offered thousands and thousands and thousands of sacrifices over over fifteen hundred years and longer because they were offering sacrifices even before this tabernacle. They were all pointing forward to this sacrifice that Christ would offer of himself. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean satisfies for the purifying of the flesh." That's referring to the ceremony in Leviticus 19, where they created, how they were to make this holy water, this cleansing water, and use that to sprinkle the things that were ceremonially unclean. If that served for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ Who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Okay, so therefore Hebrew says it was necessary that the copies of the things in heaven should be purified with these. It was the earthly tabernacle was a copy of what something that's in heaven.

There's an earthly copy so that we could see it. We can't see this tabernacle in heaven. And so God commanded Moses to make an exact copy of it, and God gave to Moses the plans to make an exact copy here on earth of this heavenly temple. And if it was necessary that this copy of what's in heaven, that's what it means, it's necessary the copy of these things in the heavens should be purified with the blood of bulls and goats. This temple had to be cleansed in the altar dedicated.

But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices. The earthly temple was purified by the sacrifice of bulls and goats, but the heavenly is necessary that the one the tabernacle in heaven be purified with better sacrifices in this for Christ has not entered the holy place made with hands which are copies of the true but into the heaven itself now to appear before the presence of God for us not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place every year with the blood of another, he would then have had to suffer since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so once Christ appeared at the end of the ages and offered of Himself a sacrifice with blood that speaks better things than this blood of the bulls and goats, the blood of the bulls and goats could never take away sin, could never atone for sin, could never appease God's wrath, could never expiate our guilt. Only Christ's blood could do that.

But now that Christ's blood has been shed, that temple is no longer needed. And God signifies that by tearing this veil in two and opening up the way from the Holy into the Holy of Holies. Opening up the way into the very presence of the throne of God. Only in the Old Testament tabernacle, only the high priest and only once a year could go behind that veil. And he could only go with the blood of an atoning sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice.

But now in Christ, we have access and we can come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is what Christ did. And this is the significance of Luke, of God tearing this veil in two. That old tabernacle is gone. And God destroyed it.

He used the Roman army seeking after gold in its foundations to remove every stone of that temple and leave not one trace of it. There is only left today a wall that was not even part of the actual temple. Every stone on that massive temple was removed, gone. Because it's not needed. It's obsolete.

Christ has, with His own blood, sanctified the heavenly temple and opened up the way for us to come to the Father. We don't need to go to Jerusalem to worship. We don't have to go three times a year for feast days. Rather, We gather each week here and we celebrate his death. We remember his death when we eat at the table.

And There is no temple and there never will be because Christ has made one sacrifice for all time. That temple has never been rebuilt in 2, 000 years because God said, I'm done with it, and he tore the veil in two and then Jesus died I shouldn't say and then Jesus died because I just said he died and then these two things happened Jesus died what what happened when Jesus died well two of the Gospel writers describe Jesus' death or tell Jesus' death as He breathed His last. He stopped breathing. Two of the other writers say that He yielded up His Spirit. You see, that's what death is.

Cessation of breathing. It's a cessation of breathing. Death is not the cessation of brain activity or our inability to measure brain activity. Death is the cessation of breathing. They call it brain death today.

It's really a false definition invented to allow people to take the vital organs out of living people while they are still alive to be able to use them. Death in the scripture is the cessation of breathing. So Jesus stopped breathing. But there's also another part of death, and that is the separation of the body and the spirit. So Luke says He breathed His last, but Matthew and John tell us that He gave up His Spirit.

He committed His Spirit. Christ gave up His Spirit which went to be with the Father while His body remained here on earth. And that's the second thing that we learn about death then, is that death is the separation of the body, the physical body, from the spirit that gives animation to it. That's not a natural state. God created the body and the spirit to be together.

So when a person is in this unnatural estate that we call death, where the body and the spirit are separated, that's the result of sin. That's being under the power of death. But it's not a natural state and it's not a permanent state. The body and the spirit will be reunited again. See, This death is not a state of unconsciousness.

Jesus said to the thief, that you will be with Me in paradise today. If there was no conscious existence under the power of death, then Jesus couldn't be with the thief today. The thief couldn't be with Jesus. If Jesus' spirit was not in paradise, then the thief couldn't be with Him in paradise that very day. So death is not just the cessation of breathing, but death more fundamentally is the separation of the body from the spirit.

And that's what it means to be under the power of death. And Jesus continued in this state, under the power of death, for three days and three nights. We also see that death is a departure. Death is when the spirit departs the body, departs this earth, either to rest or to torment. When breathing stops for more than a few minutes, The soul departs the body, and this person is said to depart this earth.

Paul referred to his death as a departure on two occasions. An exodus. We have signs up in the hallway that say exit. It's the same word, to go out, to depart. And death is said to be a departure.

Peter refers to his death as a departure. And Christ called his death a departure in Luke 9, where He said, I'm going to depart. I'm not going to be with you. So this then is what happened. When Jesus died, He stopped breathing.

His body ceased to be animated. His spirit departed and went to be with the Father in heaven. Into Your hands I commit My Spirit." But notice that Jesus willingly gave up His Spirit. Jesus' death was voluntary. His Spirit was not taken from Him.

His Spirit departed by His own initiative and by His own authority. He said, no man takes my life. I lay down my life and I take it up with my own authority. Jesus put His soul into His Father's hands, His Spirit into His Father's hands. And it is because of this voluntary nature of Christ's death that we can say He offered of Himself a sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God.

This is a very important part of Christ's death. If this death was not voluntary on Christ's part, then his death would be a gross injustice. That could never be. Instead, his death is a lavish display of love and humility. He humbled himself, even to the point of death, as low as he could possibly go as a human.

He didn't deserve that death. He humbled himself to that death. And he did it because he loved us. That's an example, by the way, that we are called to emulate. 1 John 3, 16.

By this we know love because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for one another. Christ's death was voluntary, but also note that Christ died with Scripture in His mouth. When He said, Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit, He was quoting the Old Testament from Psalm 31 where David said, into Your hand I commit My Spirit. You have redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth." Christ wielded the sword of the Spirit even in death. Christ defeated Satan with the sword of the Spirit, The Word of God.

Every time that Satan came to Him when he was tempting Him in the wilderness, Christ answered with the Scriptures. Christ answered His skeptics and His scoffers and His attackers with the Scriptures saying, it is written. And Christ here dies with this Word of God on His lips. Truly His mouth was always filled with God's praise and glory. Christ also died in hope.

He died voluntarily. He died with the Scriptures on His lips and He died in hope. He knew where He was going. He knew He was going to be with the Father and He entrusted His Spirit to the Father. Because He died in hope and was raised to glory, we too can die in this same hope.

We can die in this same assurance because our life is hid with Christ in God. It's no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us. And this life that we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us, and so we can die with this very same hope. He committed His Spirit into the hands of the Father. He died in the full assurance that his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane had been answered.

His prayers that God would preserve him. And you see, he looked forward to This resumption and the restoration of fellowship that he had enjoyed from eternity past with the Father. That's part of his compassion. He looked forward at this moment to that restoration of fellowship. And he said to the Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Well what was the effect of his death? We've already talked about this veil being torn in two and the significance of that. There are some other effects as well. The whole crowd came together to see that sight, and they beat their breasts. The death of Christ was convicting.

It brought terror and conviction to the people who hours before had been crying for His crucifixion. They saw with terror what they called for. They saw with terror the effect of sin. They saw with terror the wrath of God fall upon an innocent man. And Their response was to beat their breasts.

To beat their breasts. But they beat their breasts and went away. That's why the movie, The Passion of Christ, doesn't save people. It may be emotionally stirring. It may move people.

We are emotional creatures and we are moved by suffering. But it's not salvific. These people witnessed this terrifying thing. They're convicted. They beat their breasts, and then they returned.

And nothing more is said. You see, the spectacle by itself, though it produced terror, it didn't produce conversions like the thieves. But then there was the witness who glorified God, the centurion. When he saw what happened, he glorified God saying, certainly this is a righteous man. He recognized Jesus was innocent.

And that he was righteous. And then there was the acquaintances, his acquaintances and the women who followed him. They stood at a distance watching these things. They saw they were witnesses to his death and they could testify. These women who had followed him from Galilee stood watching.

They testified to his death and they testified we'll see later to his resurrection and they were the ones who brought to his unbelieving disciples his very twelve the fact of his resurrection. But what was the cause of Christ's death? What is the cause of death? Cause of death, The cause of Christ's death was sin. Death is the wages of sin.

But you might think, wasn't His death caused by blood loss? By asphyxiation? Isn't death caused by cancer or heart attacks or old age? No. Death is caused by sin.

Jesus died because God made him to be sin for us. He who knew no sin, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. See judgment, Death is judgment for sin. The sin of the apostate Jews who crucified Him, did Jesus die because of their sin? No He didn't.

Their sin was not the cause of Jesus' death. Jesus was innocent, even the centurion recognized it. Christ's death was caused by our sin. Not the sin of those apostates who crucified Him. Christ did not die for their sin.

Christ had no sin himself. He didn't die because of his own sin. He died for our sin. Our sin is the cause of Christ's death. How do you think of Christ's death?

You Think of it as something unjust because there were wicked people, wicked people like we have today, who condemn the innocent and justify the wicked. In Christ's death He fulfilled the purpose of His incarnation. He gave His life a ransom for many. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. In dying, He filled His office as a mediator to be an offering for sin.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He was put to grief. When you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

In offering himself without spot to God, he cleansed our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. How much more, Hebrews says, shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Is there a cheerful willingness to commit your soul to the Father? He is good. He is gracious.

He brings great good to those who are called according to his purpose. Christ's death was absolutely necessary so that we could die in hope and so that we could die with God's Word upon our lips and in our heart. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that we can never even begin to repay the debt that we owe to you that you have paid for us but we do Lord as you call us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to you, which is but our reasonable service. And we would seek Lord not to be conformed to this world and its passing pleasures and its desires and its wealth and its allure, but to be conformed more and more to the image of your Son.

To be renewed in our thinking. To be restored in our work and in our labors, according as you have given to us grace, according as you have gifted us and called us and placed us. We ask, Lord, that we may labor not to please men, but labor as unto you, to offer our bodies in gratitude for your love for us and for your sacrifice for us. And so, Father, we ask that you would so strengthen us and equip us and sanctify us. In Jesus' name, Amen.